the countdown to the next winter olympics begins that's exactly one year until russia hosts its first ever winter games that promise to become the most unique act and the most expensive in history. but not all officials are in a celebrate torrie mood of russia's president lashes out at overspending even fax a key figure behind the sochi twenty four team games. meanwhile the turmoil in tunisia intensifies fresh clashes between anti-government protesters and police are accompanied by a political chaos with the ruling islamists defining the prime minister's decision to reshuffle the government. and no compromise in sight leaders gear up for a clash over cuts as they arrive in brussels to hammer out a budget deal.

thanks for tuning in we've got news and analysis from all around the globe for you broadcasting live twenty four seven from our moscow headquarters i'm lucy catherine of and you're watching r.t. . well into our top story sochi in fact it's now exactly one year until the opening of the twenty fourteen winter olympic games in russia now the special giant clocks in the country's largest city is the one you can see behind me have begun the countdown for the event that's actually going to be held at the beautiful black sea resort city of sochi now this specific look behind me that you can see is actually the one that's in the center of moscow and it's taking in real time so as you can see three hundred sixty four days twenty one hours and a bunch of other minutes left before the winter and the olympics kick off this is also the pictures of the gala the main celebrations to mark the countdown which

have taken place in sochi itself around going off with a spectacular show as you can see on the screen behind me and now our very own i under farmer was in the city for us to see how these preparations for the games are actually going and to gauge the mood there let's take a look the place you can see the spirit as well. which like the city sky just. it will be spectacular. beach going to be stuck in the east time for several reviews for the city to be within acceptable but this is the big concave scene showing up to. these games really should be very you would be able to just jump with the chinese within fifteen minutes you can be in the mindset. to enjoy anything secondly you mentioned it should be built. something very unusual i'm not privy to the street company's going to look very

nice expensive in the street and we needed something to keep billion dollars but if you look around at what money the organizing committee says it. will be ready in twenty. days and are farmers speaking there now meanwhile authorities in sochi are of course keeping a close eye on all those developments there before the place becomes host too high . hundreds of thousands of visitors to the olympic games and in fact russian president vladimir putin has been personally checking the olympic venues and says that he's generally happy with what he saw he did have a fire one top official for delays and cost overruns and construction work following this abrupt conversation take a look at the engine if you are the really cost overruns yes a serious increase in costs but since they use their own funds for the construction phones. it's financed by the funds. who's the shareholder of crescent spends

so it's largely finance at the expense of sperm bank yes and these cost overruns are paid for by sperm bank yes it's spending one of the costs of this whole facility cost what's the overall was what your initial would be reassessing the amount of. what's a rough estimate. the initial price or one point two billion now it's a. one point two billion has turned into eight billion yes well done good work let's move on. well as you can see there the president has some cutting words which as we reported didn't go without consequences for one official if we're going to be monitoring the developments in sochi here on our team as it readies for one of the world's biggest and most prestigious sporting events.

it's going to be a battle between the north and the south at an e.u. meeting in brussels states are on a collision course over spending plans for the next few years britain is the loudest voice among those calling for a budget cut something fairly opposed by a southern countries who are heavily dependent on the e.u. funds artists are still reports from brussels for us. we've seen some of the leaders who had arrived here already making strong statements first of all david cameron continuously saying that if the budget is not brought down to a level that he is happy with there will be no deal we've heard from countries who are saying that they may use their veto if they are not happy such as the czech republic to simplify the vickery going on right now it would be between northern and southern countries you could say the wealthier nations versus those that actually depend more on the e.u. funding on the one hand you have countries like the u.k.

germany the netherlands denmark these countries are supporting harsher cuts to the e.u. budget david cameron being the most radical and controversial taking this step now he has been demanding since november last year in two thousand and twelve that was the first today is the second try and since that until now he's been demanding for cuts in brussels bureaucracy for instance he wants to reduce payments of officials here and this has not gone down well with brussels officials he also wants to reduce their pensions for instance but on the other side you have those countries who are dependent on these forums and one of the loudest voices on this is a lot of friends now he is saying and pointing a finger at the u.k. say they want cuts but at the same time they are very protective of the so-called rebate this is the money that the u.k. gets back from the e.u. as a return for their payments on farm subsidies which the u.k. does not benefit from and which france benefits a lot from you can see a lot of the national interests coming here to the forefront so france well it's

certainly not happy with what if you read between the lines would say you hypocritical taken by the view that rebate is worth three point five billion euros and is seen to be wanting to tackle that point also the u.k. is coming into this summit this is the first time since that out referendum that can said that he would pose the question of whether he should remain. twenty seven reelected in the twenty fifth. of course this is a possibility of a creating even more tension with the costs and benefits of actually being a member of the e.u. interpreted by the other members not being a team player disregard and also as this talk is happening talking about budget cuts of the e.u. level receive the budget cuts on a more local ground level we've seen the protests continuing even until today people very angry at the. imposed on them on their livelihoods of their pension their potential jobs well that you cannot agree upon

a budget of their own. and while the e.u. leaders partly are fighting over where to cut there's one item that's apparently immune from any austerity measures the e.u. is reportedly planning to spend more than three million dollars to wage a so-called propaganda blitz against its critics in the social media for more later on in the show i'm going to be later on joined by nigel farage from the u.k. independence party if they with us for that interview from drone strikes to torture techniques tough questions are ahead for barack obama's nominee for cia head as his confirmation hearing in the stand that kicks off john brennan is widely seen as an architect of the u.s. drone strategy in an effort to avoid scrutiny however around remnants canada see the u.s. president has even agreed to hand over a classified documents justifying the killing of american terror suspects abroad and that's after years of keeping it secret parties going to camera ports brennan's confirmation my broaden the horizons for american drone fleets. in the

shadows no more drones are moving into the mainstream was drone makers in the u.s. military pushing to defend the killing machine drones are more properly titled remotely piloted vehicles allow us to do is to project capability without projecting vulnerability in their revolutionizing north america by allowing us to see and. from half a world away a major drone manufacturer lockheed martin has financed an hour long documentary on drones aired recently on u.s. public television touting the technological capabilities of the killing machine from trailers like this pilots of the predator and its larger cousin the reaper have killed thousands of individual since two thousand and one using remotely piloted aircraft contrary to popular belief actually provides the greatest degree of ethical oversight for their use and this young man in pakistan would probably

disagree several of his family members died at the remote hands of a drone more than a thousand other civilians were reportedly killed by u.s. drone strikes in pakistan and yemen we find ourselves murdering people in many cases children with no evidence whatsoever that they're involved in any criminal or terrorist activity the numbers should not come as a surprise considering the broad definition the obama administration gives us to who should be on their kill list the leaked memo on targeted assassinations from the us justice department suggests the us government can kill people even without evidence that they are actively plotting against america if you extend the logic or studio logic being proud by the white house now you come to the lift you might say that we're in danger of going over we're getting very close to zero thought crimes that if somebody a u.s. citizen or otherwise is believed to be thinking something that could lead to

actions against you know. it states then this illogical logic would present the idea that it would be ok for the president to order that that person be killed despite the un raising concerns about the legality of the use of drones the us is said to expand its remote control warfare setting up new drone bases across the world the latest announcement a new facility in asia where obama has redefined war during intervention in libya he made the case that the war powers act in a quiet because there was no risk to american soldiers and so under that rationale he can expand the global war while in his state of the union address queening that we don't need perpetual war for peace but it is perpetual war when you can drop bombs on any country and then claim that it's not worth john brennan often referred to as the architect of the administration's drone war counts the new opportunities for the us to wage wars without risking american lives there's another reason the

targeted strikes can be a wise choice strategic consequences that inevitably come with the use of force. as we have seen deploying large armies abroad won't always be our best offense all in all the u.s. now has around ten thousand drones in its fleet not all of them carry weapons of course a lot of them are for surveillance both domestic and international there's a great push both from the administration and the drone makers to present them as america's next best thing john brennan if confirmed will soon be at the helm of the cia and no one doubts that under him the program will expand even further the goal is pretty much clear to be able to control the world with a remote control in washington i'm going to go. well off credit. of the president of a pakistani political lobbying group pac nationalist forum says that president obama's pick for the new cia chief will only damage america's position in the

region take a look. john friend is confirmed i think we're looking at a nother phase of instability in this entire region of afghanistan and pakistan i mean good by confirming the obama administration by confirming john brennan as cia director is basically taking in us all back to the same destructive policies that actually led to the american and to the near american defeat in the months down the same papa sees the end taken a cieszyn of allies we all know that and have staged work very closely with several countries in this region in order to secure afghanistan this included of course virus done it included several countries in central asia it included russia and others but it with each of these countries the united states and the policies the kind of policies that the cia to particular purse do it really and antagonized all of these key u.s. allies and made the u.s. mission in afghanistan very very difficult. right along to tunisia now where

anti-government protests are increasingly turning into violent clashes with the police and the capital security forces use tear gas to disperse crowds at the interior ministry and earlier in the southern city of more hundreds of demonstrators threw stones and chanted anti regime slogans r.t. as maria is in tunis for us and joins us live thanks there. break break down what's actually happening on the ground i mean we're hearing these reports of what's happening in the tunisian capital that they've been reading from calm returning to the streets to fierce clashes what's what's actually going on what have you witnessed. this is the view right now in the news in the capital it's quite calm right now but i have to say that first day the day. the day after the assassination of the prominent opposition leader here in the tunisian capital it seems that temperatures are still very high and tensions are still at the very

dangerous the very risky level the level that is threatening and challenging the security instability in this country trojans happen continuing strong day we've seen many many people on the streets and we've been hearing them chanting and to governmental slogans and i want to be very clear we haven't been hearing calls for justice or investigation because these people have been accusing the government and ruling easily missed the party for. assassination a for be responsible for the for being behind the assisting nation no for the opposition leader but these call these were the calls for the government to step down that is very dangerous and actually they've been to many clashes between police and a position supporters today again and again police has been using tear gas against protesters but not only the clashes between protesters and. opposition supporters have been going on here in tunisia in capital. my crew and me we've been attacked

to die here actually by a group of youngsters with tiles and the only reason for that because it was just because we filmed them and they have been field and i think that tells a lot of alcohol is the situation on the ground it could be described as something very close to chaotic we've been here in about similar violence similar disturbances to country especially in the south and caught over to me show where the headquarters of the ruling party has been vandalized and again they have been protests there and again and to government to slogans were heard there and again police it has been using tear gas against protest is that correct. they fall but it's clear they had it that they have been injured people today we've been hearing sounds of ambulances home day to day and we can understand that it in the room they

have been fears that may turn violent but we are witnessing like knowledge so returning violent we've been hearing reports that the police one police officer died during the clashes some previous day exactly off to a stone was thrown to him and to killed him well it's a very dangerous and very. tense situation on the ground but this is thursday people are saying that it's friday will be even worse on friday they say the protests may go even more violent intentions may go been further because friday will be the day of the funerals of the opposition leader first second friday in this traditionally very active day in all arab spring countries and tunisia is the first i restrain revolution countries as we know and also you know we've been hearing that's the country's trade union has been calling on the national wide strike on friday that means that the country

could be paralyzed i've heard from texas dr each day that no one will be working today not in libya. and on friday i mean nothing will be open that news of the country would paralyzed and of course it will not add to general instability and insecurity here on the ground of course it will only a great thing if this seems well certainly a ton situation and we're glad to hear that you and your crew are all right there please keep safe tomorrow as the larger protests and the general strike take place our desire for notional life from the tunisian capital for us. well of course we're always here to eager to hear your views on the stories that we cover so if you head over to r.t. dot com you'll see our online poll question which asks you to weigh in on how you think the outcome of the latest bout of tunisian protests will play out now we've actually selected several options for you for that you're able to vote and sort of

get weigh in on this whole situation and i want to break up the results because a majority of you who have already voted we've actually decided to tally up those results now a majority of you think that tunisia is going to plunge into further unrest almost a third of you as you can see fear that the latest upsurge of public unrest will actually lead to a government crackdown on protesters a little less of you believe that the country might see another revolution and almost one fifth on the contrary think that the leadership is actually ready for political concessions now of course i will have to wait to see how those protests play out tomorrow the biggest day as artie's mayor for an ocean reported there to see how these predictions will actually pan out and how more stories for you after a break stay with us.

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i. welcome back you're watching r t with me lucy cough and of now as promised we've got some analysis on the planned edu propaganda blitz against the euro skeptics in the social media for that i'm joined by nigel for raj from the u.k. independence party to break all this down now thanks so much for taking the time to speak with us i am so confused by this story i mean it frankly sounds a bit like a joke so i mean you fishel is will be turned into secret agents with a trolling mission on the internet as a as a member of the european parliament tell us how realistic is this. well it is serious i mean the the bureau of the parliament which is the organization of the

european parliament which decides how resources a spend you know they decided that they're going to train in house staff in the run up to the european elections of twenty fourteen train those people to go online to look at facebook twitter other social media sites and to correct that's their word not mine to correct any misapprehensions that may exist about the european union and i have to say the fact that it's a parliament that is doing this that is using taxpayers' money to do this says a lot about the institutions that the whole point about parliaments is the person is it's him a chair of parliament he's the speaker in westminster he's the chairman in other parliaments around the world but he and all the rest of the staff are supposed to be neutral they're not supposed to take any political position at all and the fact that the parliament has decided it's going to spend money time and resources doing this shows you that frankly they're no better than

a banana republic and this is all the mcgarvie would do or someone like that so i think many people outside would be shocked by it having worked there myself for thirteen years i'm not surprised at all they are really really scared they're scared that from north to south to east to west all over the european union citizens are saying we've never voted for this thing to become the united states of europe we never asked to have the majority of our laws made somewhere else and we want to do something about it so they're scared and they're fighting back well scared indeed but you know moral reprehension aside is this behavior even legal for them to be doing. the word legal and the word europe and the words european union don't fit together there is no such thing as nothing matters here there are no rules you know the treaty the lisbon treaty as it became after the electors dish

to the european gods that usually the lisbon treaty forbade the bailouts of euro zone countries and yet five euro zone countries have now received bailouts there are no rules what there is here is a fanatical political belief that we have to build a european structure a european state with its own army its own police force its own treasury and to hell with what the peoples of europe think we are going to do it anyway and that's what's driving this project and of course they've got a flag they've got it. and they are fanatical and i believe the most dangerous people we've seen in europe for seventy years well you're quite clear in your point of view there but very briefly i mean wouldn't it make more sense to tackle the root problem instead of trying to you know spend taxpayer money as you mentioned that they're on the social media website and try to change people's minds that way

you could spend a trillion euros trying to tackle the root problem and the root problem economically is that the eurozone cannot and will not ever work. so there's no point in attempting to do that because it you know you're not going to solve something this is a misconstruction the economics are wrong the politics are wrong it isn't going to work and rather than admit defeat what they're going to try and do is solve the names of people like me who called into question their legitimacy and i think that what's going to happen over the next couple of years is that the war of words that takes place within the european union is going to get very bitter very nasty indeed well sir you certainly do not mince your words thank you so much for weighing in as always u.k. independence party member of parliament or. some other international news in brief for you right now. iran's supreme leader ayatollah

khamenei has rejected a u.s. offer of direct talks over its nuclear program saying the two countries cannot negotiate when tehran has a gun pointed out it comes just a day after washington tightened economic sanctions on iran aimed at restraint cash from oil production u.s. vice president joe biden made the offer of one to one discussions last saturday. now the leader of hamas seventy one talks with palestinian president mahmoud abbas about forging a coalition government colleague michel mentions that both parties could be getting ready ahead of parliamentary and presidential elections hamas pushed the fatah movement headed by abbas out of the gaza strip in two thousand and seven sparking a conflict between the two sides. meanwhile wildfires in australia are making their way across the south of tasmania while emergency services are bracing for a worsening weather conditions authorities have called on some locals to move from

inaccessible areas until the danger has passed and this latest wave of fires comes after a bushfire destroyed nearly two hundred properties just last month. up ahead for you it's the kaiser report. no longer represents the brief. structure.